McLaren aims to win again by hitting the road with supercar

Object of desire: the company’s latest supercar, the MP4-12C, is much lusted after

The mistress must have been given the push. McLaren's last supercar, the much-lusted after F1, had three seats: there was room, so the joke went, for both the wife and the girlfriend.

But the manufacturer's new luxury road car, the not very catchily named MP4-12C, which was unveiled today, is a standard two seater.

"We're aiming this at the traditional sports car market, which is geared towards two occupants," says Ron Dennis, the former boss of the McLaren Formula One team, who now runs its road car division and remains executive chairman of McLaren Automotive. "Whereas, with the F1, we wanted to put the driver right at the centre."

It is not the only major change: the MP4-12C, which goes on sale next year, is expected to cost up to £170,000, still a hefty sum but almost affordable when compared with the F1's price tag of £600,000, and that was in the Nineties. And unlike the F1, of which only 106 were made, the car is expected to be a moneymaker for McLaren.

But the greatest difference is that the MP4-12C is not intended as a one-off. This isn't only about unveiling a sleek and expensive new car: McLaren is billing it as the launch of an entirely new automotive company. Beating Ferrari on the racetrack is no longer enough; McLaren wants to win on the road too.

"The car is the first product in a line of many," says 62-year-old Dennis. "We are ambitious; we'll be one of the few employers creating jobs in this tough environment."

McLaren is taking on several hundred staff and plans eventually to make around 4500 cars a year. Dennis believes the decline of Britain's manufacturing has been overstated and that, particularly post-financial crisis, industry is finally attracting some of the attention it deserves.

"In the last two years, the political parties have started to wake up to the importance of manufacturing again," he says. "Britain still has areas of strength: in the advanced sciences and research we are among the best in the world."

Is he nervous that a post-General Election squeeze will be brutal to British manufacturing?

"It isn't just about cutting costs, we need to become more productive as a nation. Investment is needed," he warns. "As a small island, to punch above our weight, we have to produce technologies which will be sought all over the world."

McLaren is betting its latest sports car will be one of them. It is entering a tough market, however: it will be competing with Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Porsche and Jaguar to convince the world's wealthiest petrolheads that the MP4-12C is where they want to put their personalised number plates.

While it will not go on sale for a year, is now the best time to launch a supercar?

"Sales are starting to climb back up again in the sector," says Dennis. "And we are only planning to make a thousand of them in 2011.

"We only want a small part of the market. Plus we have such a strong brand in motorsport —since 1966, we're won one in four races in which we have competed and we've won Le Mans — and that is an attraction."

The MP4-12C is built in McLaren's factory in Woking by a predominantly British team. And it is the first time McLaren has built its own engine, helped by British engineers Ricardo.

He is an optimist too about the future of UK plc: "I am fiercely patriotic and have a very strong belief in the UK. There will be a recovery here, and we want to be one of the companies leading the way."